Lithuanian Radio and Television

SALDŽIŪNAS Vilius

Supervisor, RTV electric power supply department

I went to the television and radio building at 7 p.m. It was quiet on the premises. About one o'clock at night you could hear shooting from the direction of the television tower. I took the elevator to the eighth floor and saw an approaching column of light tanks which surrounded the building from the side of the river. Running to the first floor, I heard windows shattering and saw policemen fighting with the paratroopers. One paratrooper pointed his gun at me and screamed: „Stoj, streliatj budu!" („Stop, I'll shoot!") I was at the end of the corridor, so I jumped around the corner and ran into the dispatcher's room. There were five of us there, and then one more person ran in. We locked the door and watched the program on Lithuanian TV. When they showed paratroopers going to the main apparatus room, we realized that the television had been taken over. We turned off the technological feed in the power block and locked ourselves in the dispatcher's room again. Two T-72 tanks and a radio communication vehicle drove into the yard. The tanks began to shoot at the windows. Explosions and series of machine-gun and tommy-gun fire echoed in the yard. They shot four times from empty barrels. Windows shattered from the sound waves. In half an hour we heard them hitting the door. They broke down all the doors in turn. Breaking inside, they smashed everything and broke the safes. They began to break into the dispatcher's room too. They hit the door for a long time but it wouldn't give, so they left it alone. We had a telephone, so we called our homes and told them that we were in hiding and that we were only going to leave in the daylight, when the murderers change places, as we had heard that this first set were truly savage. Besides, we had seen their faces, and they were on the older side. Later they were replaced by young soldiers. The whole night we could hear them carrying and loading something into trucks. They were lugging something heavy, like safes. The internal telephone exchange was disconnected. Through the window we saw a radio-station officer who went up to our window and pulled out an extension cord. Rolling it up, he put it in his car.

It was already day-time when the director knocked on the door. We let him in. The paratroopers asked how we had gotten into the building. We were taken to G. Steigvila, the new head of the television, to explain ourselves. He said sweetly: „Those poor people, so tired and worn out, we should feed them." It was really disgusting. Somehow, after long explanations, they let us go. I went to my office to put on my coat, and everything was turned over and broken. My jacket was hanging where I had left it, but my gloves, my pen, the keys to my flat, and my spare change weren't in my pockets.